


Annie’s Gambit

by tammydiscospider



Category: Community (TV), The Queen's Gambit (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:12:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29477511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tammydiscospider/pseuds/tammydiscospider
Summary: Orphan and chess prodigy Annie Edison joins her first tournament.Queens Gambit AU.
Relationships: Annie Edison/Jeff Winger
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	1. Registration

**Author's Note:**

> Noticed some similarities in the interactions between Beth and Townes and Community’s favorite “controversial”pairing.
> 
> Characters
> 
> Annie - Beth
> 
> Jeff - Townes
> 
> Troy and Abed - twins
> 
> Britta - first girl she plays
> 
> Pierce - Mr. Shaibel 
> 
> Shirley - Alma

Annie arrives at the school. It’s nothing special, with dark hallways and an odd smell that all high schools seem to have but she doesn’t care. It’s her first tournament and she’s excited. If her competition are anything like the boys she beat in the chess club, she’d be able to pay back Mr. Hawthorne the five dollars he lent her for the tournament. Plus she’d be able to help her stepmother Shirley with her financial trouble.

She sees a table which she assumes is where the players register. Seated there are two quite nerdy looking boys, one black and one she assumes is Asian. She goes up to them.

“Hey there, I’m Troy and this is Abed.” the black kid cheerfully tells her. The other kid, Abed, just stares, not even blinking. “What’s your ranking?”

“I don’t have a ranking.” She replies a little too bluntly, trying to hide her embarassment.

“Okay, no problem. We’ll put you in the beginners open,” Troy gently replies.

“But I’m not a beginner.” Annie objects.

Surprisingly, it’s Abed who speaks next. “Doesn’t matter. If you’re unranked, you go with the beginners. It’s everyone below 1600.” He talks in monotone and almost too quickly for her to understand. 

Annie takes a moment to reply. Playing beginners would be even easier, hardly a challenge. She’d be done before lunch but what was the point in that?

“What’s the prize for beginners?”

“Twenty”, says Abed flatly.

“What about non-beginners?”

“Sixty dollars for first prize. Hello rich people!” grins Troy. He gives her a thumbs up.

Sixty dollars. Annie’s never had that amount of money. It would really help with basic supplies and groceries. And adderrall, which isn’t cheap. Good thing she brought some today. She’d need to take one or two to focus and play well.

“Does it say in any rule I can’t join there?” she tries one last time.

“Not really.”

“Then put me in there.” she says firmly. She tries her best to be assertive. She makes eye contact which usually achieves good results. It worked on Mr. Hawthorne anyway.

Troy looks over to Abed, who tilts his head sideways, studying her. It makes her feel a bit uncomfortable. He then grabs a pen and writes something on a pad. Troy watches Abed closely. He continues to write. This goes on for a while so she clears her throat. Both boys stop and look back at her.

“Oh, sorry. Here, fill this up. and then you’re good to go” Troy says as he hands her a clipboard.

After completing the sign up sheet, she heads downstairs and inside the gym.

“What is it Abed?” Troy asks.

“She’s the protagonist in this story. It makes sense. She’s younger than everyone here, plus she’s a girl in the chess world. She has to be a chess prodigy. I want to see how this plays out but she’ll probably win this tournament then have to deal with her drug problem later.” Abed replies.

Troy’s eyes open wide. “Are you psychic?” he says in a high-pitched voice.

Abed turns to him and inflects, “Yes Troy, I am psychic.” He hoped Troy would pick up on his sarcasm. 

He doesn’t. “Woah, okay, that’s a lot to take in.” 

“She also dropped this.” He shows Troy a blister pack labelled “Adderall”.

“Cool. Wanna bet Jeff falls in love with her?” Troy asks excitedly.

“Oh he won’t know what hit him. This will be fun. Maybe even better than the matches themselves.”


	2. Heaven Is A Place On Earth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annie meets Jeff.

Once Annie steps inside the gym, she can’t help but be amazed. Tables with chess sets fill the entire place, as well as chalkboards. The smell of fresh coffee and cigarettes. It was just a local tournament but for her, it might as well have been the world championships. This was heaven on earth.

She sees other people start filing in, heading to their respective tables their matches. She looks around for where hers is and sees a signage board where the names are being put up. On the very bottom, it says PERRY VS EDISON. It also says both are unranked.

She can feel her skin boiling up...no, no, no. She can’t lose it. Not here, not now. No more breakdowns. It was most likely a mistake. Troy and Abed made a small, tiny mistake. No worries. She tries taking deep breaths and looks away from the board.

That’s when she loses her breath.

It’s a boy. A very good looking one. He has quite a smug look on his face as he stares at the board. He’s well-built and looks mature, probably a bit older than her. He’s wearing a shirt and tie with...sweatpants. Interesting fashion choice. Reeks of hair product though. Is that what angels smell like?

She suddenly finds herself being very conscious of everything from her clothes to her hair. And her shortness of breath. And her face warming up. It’s a sensation she’s never felt.

She tries to play it cool. Loosey-goosey. “Are the matches played at random?” she calmly asks. She hoped her voice didn’t crack.

“Not at all.” he answers smoothly with a voice that could charm anyone.

He faces her and it’s as if everyone in the gym was looking at her. She felt like she was melting. Did someone turn off the fans in the place?

“It’s by rankings in the first round. After that it’s winners versus winners and losers versus losers.” he continues.

They stare into each other’s eyes. Seconds pass by. It could’ve been days but neither of them would have noticed.

She blinks. What now? She’s hardly talked to anyone in her life, let alone a boy. If only life were like chess. Much more simple. So she decides to just look down and walk away.

To her surprise, he calls after her. “Good luck, kiddo.”

She stops and turns to him again.

“You too.” she replies. 

She tries her best not to blush as she heads off to her table, which is also apparently the coffee station. So much for not being a beginner.

As she sits down, she tries to see where his table is. Just as she gets a glimpse of him shaking his opponents hand, a blonde girl approaches her table. She smells like cigarettes and honestly looks like a hot mess. She sits down on the chair across Annie and holds out her hand.

“Hi. Britta Perry.”


	3. Oh Britta’s in this?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Britta Britta’d it.

Annie reaches out and they shake hands.

“Annie Edison.”

Britta looks around, uneasy.

“Do you have a clock?”, the blonde asks.

“Yup. What kind do we need?” Annie replies.

“A chess clock.” Britta says as if it was so obvious.

She was sort of getting on Annie’s nerves but she’d just let her have it in the match. No need to waste energy on anything other than chess.

She brings out a wooden piece from her bag. It contained two clocks together on it with a button each on top. It was a bit different from a regular clock though. She got it as a prize from the high schoolers she demolished. She never knew what it was for until now. She also didn’t know how to use it.

“That’s it.” she gets told.

“How do they work?”, she asks, afraid that she’d be made fun of by the chain-smoking cool girl.

“They measure your playing time. I think we get like an hour each? I’m not sure though. I do know that you press the button before and after you make a move. To time yourself basically. ” Britta responds unconvincingly.

If this girl was as smart as she sounded, the match might break some record for fastest checkmate. Or close to it. Not that it mattered how long it took but that would be a great accomplishment. Then again, if it’s against someone like Britta...maybe not so much.

“Okay, you’re white I guess.” Annie says, eager to start.

“Yeah, not that skin color matters. I believe in equality. Although, I’m not sure if racism is as bad as animal abuse- -“ Britta rambled on.

“I meant you’re playing white so you start?” Annie uses her sweet voice for this. She probably got it from Shirley since it was one of her many techniques in getting what she wanted. It’s something Annie realized she’s good at as well, almost as much as in chess. And she hasn’t even used her ultimate superpower, her doe eyes.

Britta turns red. She looks down and starts her clock. She stares at the board, as if looking at each piece.

She reaches for her pawn and moves it to G4.

Annie almost reaches for her own pawn but looks back at Britta.

“Your clock?” she says gently.

“Oh right, I’m sorry.” Britta hits the clock button again to officially end her turn.

Annie quickly starts her own clock and places her own pawn to E5. She pushes the clock button once more.

Ball in Perry’s court.

Britta’s next move is pawn to F3.

Annie gives her an incredulous look. Was she serious? This had to be a joke. Even the boys in the high school were not this bad. Oh well, sorry Britta. She did it to herself.

She moves her queen to H3.

Checkmate.

It takes Britta a few seconds before she realizes this.

“Oh crap. Not again.”

“Ugh, you’re the worst.” a voice says from the side. Annie turns and sees a small Chinese man looking at them.

“Good match?” she offers her hand to her poor opponent.

They shake hands.

“Match over already? The players just started. The coffee’s still hot. Who could have...oh Britta’s in this?” says a bald man wearing glasses, most likely one of the organizers.

A win is a win but this doesn’t feel right at all. Annie heads out the courts and back to the registration area. 


End file.
